Lufthansa and SAP Announce Winners of the Aviation Blockchain Challenge

Frankfurt, Germany, October 31, 2018 — Lufthansa Innovation Hub and the SAP.iO Foundries program complete the judging of entries from their Aviation Blockchain Challenge and announce three winners out of a group of nine finalists from a total of 312 entries.

Bringing ideas together

When Lufthansa and SAP announced their challenge in the field of decentralized blockchain technologies, startups and other formations of experts from 56 countries entered and all of them wanted to showcase how their solutions could aid the modern aviation industry.

The competition is said to be the largest of its kind to date and certainly gave the judges a hard time to pick the best finalists our of this many entries. Part of the jury was also Artiona Bogo, Blockchain Business Development Manager in the SAP Innovation Center Network, who said, “All nine finalists addressed deep-rooted challenges of the aviation industry and underwent various validation rounds. We deeply appreciated the business-driven approach to all posed problems, whereby the blockchain technology was essential to solving the problem rather than the other way round”.

Finding the best

The entry from the 500Labs team allows for a secure and standardized exchange of data in real time between all parties that could be involved in flight operations. That could include airlines, airports, suppliers and other kinds of service providers. Improvements in this space could not only mean a more secure means of handling very personal data but also increase efficiency and speed up processes. For the flight passenger this would mean fewer worries about data privacy and maybe even a reduction of flight delays.

The startup Sweetbridge has designed a blockchain-based financial marketplace that let their users process financial and treasury transactions such as making payments in a decentralized way. Their platform could also be leveraged by companies in order to operate loyalty programs by enabling marketplace logic with the objective to earn “points” in a way that would be attractive to both users and vendors.

The application from 14bis Supply Tracking helps to improve the aircraft component supply chain management and data processing by making use of blockchain-based technology. The seamless and transparent transactions allow for a better processing, and the solution can also support a variety of standard industrial software systems. If a solution is compatible with existing systems that are already invested in and deployed, all involved parties can expect a much higher efficiency and also project cost savings.

All told, the challenge was a success

Christian Langer, Vice President Digital Strategy Lufthansa Group and Jury Chairman of the Aviation Blockchain Challenge also commented, “We discovered outstanding teams and interesting blockchain applications in aviation worldwide and initiated an in-depth exchange between the best teams and experts from Lufthansa and SAP, which we will further intensify after the challenge. The first Aviation Blockchain Challenge was a great success for all participants, so the Lufthansa Innovation Hub will definitely continue the format in the future”.

That being said, we are looking forward to more exciting challenges to come.

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